Gold Line extension looks on track for June ground-breaking, officials say

After more than a year of uncertainty, the first phase of the Gold Line Foothill Extension from Pasadena to the Azusa/Glendora border appears to be on target for a June ground-breaking.

That date had been in contention since November 2008, when a victorious county tax measure assured that the line would receive funding but also highlighted differences between local and county transit officials over the time line for the project.

The Foothill Extension Construction Authority had targeted a completion date of 2013, but county Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials estimated the line wouldn't be completed until 2017.

But recent discussions between the two groups have left construction authority officials certain enough of receiving funding that board members Thursday night voted to begin the search for a contractor to build the line - with a June ground-breaking as a goal.

"Much to our surprise, when we sat down with the MTA, they had come around to our way of thinking," said Habib Balian, the construction authority's CEO.

The vote appeared to end a decade of somewhat contentious relations between San Gabriel Valley officials and the MTA over the future of the Gold Line Foothill Extension. The rocky relationship prompted Rep. Adam Schiff, then a state senator, to author legislation in 1998 creating the construction authority to push the project along.

Still problems continued as the new authority for years fought unsuccessfully for funding for the project. After voters passed Measure R, the half-cent county tax to fund local transit projects, authority officials consistently pushed the MTA's board to commit to building the project sooner.

There were also battles over whether to seek federal funding for the project.

Ara Najarian, a Glendale councilman and chairman of the MTA's board, credited MTA CEO Art Leahy, who was appointed last March, with changing the attitudes of MTA officials toward the Gold Line.

"When we brought in our new CEO, I made it clear that we wanted a new attitude in the agency, where everybody isn't fighting each other for their own area's project," said Najarian, who has been a big supporter of the Gold Line. "I think, under him, the agency has responded."

Other local officials had different explanations. Azusa Councilman Keith Hanks, a member of the construction authority's board, said an independent study that found the Gold Line extension could create 7,000 jobs probably helped motivate the MTA to get moving on the project.

The construction authority will likely receive its full Measure R allotment of $851 million for the project over 11 years, according to Balian.

The plan is to find a construction company with enough cash reserves to fund much of the project's costs, with the authority paying back the money as its Measure R funds trickle in.

Plans area also moving forward on a 584-foot bridge that will span diagonally across the Foothill (210) Freeway and connect the existing Sierra Madre Villa Station with the future Arcadia station south of the freeway.

The authority's board voted Thursday to solicit bids from six companies it has certified as qualified to construct the bridge, which is estimated to cost between $20 million and $25 million.

The MTA's board must still vote on the transfer of Measure R funds to the authority, a vote expected to be taken at the board's Feb. 25 meeting.

But Najarian believes the vote will be a mere formality.

"At this point, I see no obstacle in the county to supporting a fund-transfer agreement," Najarian said.